2018 Canadian Discount Brokerage Review & 2019 Preview

2018 was in an incredible year in the online brokerage industry, with unprecedented volumes and an exciting inflow of investors who were new to direct investing. At RBC Direct Investing, we couldn’t be more excited about the future and the clients we’re privileged to serve.

For us, this means we are committed to listening to our clients and delivering on what’s important to them. We aspire to make every investors’ journey affordable, accessible and enjoyable. In 2018, this meant we continued to focus on the areas most important to our clients:

Committing to upgrades to our trading systems and operations, and dedicating ourselves to providing exceptional and resilient service for the transactions clients come to us for.

Continuous improvement of our existing online features and delivering new enhancements like additional research capabilities, increased margin availability and trading functions. We enhanced and refreshed our most-used Detailed Quote pages to deliver the information clients need to make and execute their trade decisions, and will be including new features like Technical Summary Scores from Trading Central in early 2019.

As clients increasingly rely on mobile usage, we are reimagining our mobile app for a relaunch in 2019. We’re drawing on the excellence of the RBC Mobile App that clients already count on for their day-to-day financial transactions to deliver a better, more robust mobile investing experience to our clients.

A fresh, simplified online account opening experience for clients early in 2019.

The features that make RBC Direct Investing unique are still central to the value we deliver:

Clients have told us that to improve their own investing outcomes, they want to know how others are investing. In 2018 we launched a refreshed investor Community that’s easy to join, where members can find and connect with other investors on the RBC Direct Investing site. It has enabled our clients to connect, engage, get investing ideas and learn from each other in a peer-to peer, anonymous and secure venue.

Our content hub, Inspired Investor, has evolved and changed to align with the things that interest our clients. Educational articles and news can be easily accessed from the home page, discussed in the Community Forums and shared socially with friends and other investors. Inspired Investor posts new, unique content three times weekly and allows our investors to connect to their investments in a different way, gaining inspiration and insight.

Strong investor education for all clients looking to learn and grow in their online investing journeys:

personalized emails to educate clients about their trades, account operations and deadlines

simplified investment learning; we continue to focus on this in 2019 with the upcoming launch of our Investing Academy.

Through Trade with Points, clients can convert their RBC Rewards® points to cash deposits or contributions, or use them to pay for trade commissions. This has seen greater use as RBC Direct Investing lowered the thresholds for redeeming points.

For almost 30 years, we’ve been delivering what’s most important and relevant to our clients, helping them achieve greater success and ensuring a superior investing experience. We are focused on continuing this in 2019 and beyond.